In a fascinating study of almost 54,000 people from 2003 to 2014, researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that teenagers aren’t just making you crazy about their sleep patterns in order to make you crazy. They actually have a different need for sleep than do adults. Their body clock makes them ready to go to sleep at about 12:30am and ready to then wake up at about 8:30am. For 60 year olds, in contrast, it’s 11pm to sleep and 7am to rise.

It is currently unknown why teenagers are better off with these sleep patterns; the patterns are seen to change at about 19.

The research has been published in the journal PLOS One. As the researchers explained, ‘The timing for optimal sleep can be as different as 10 hours among individuals, meaning that opposite chronotypes could share a bed without knowing that they do. What chronotype you are, is influenced by age and gender – on average, older people are earlier chronotypes than younger people and women are earlier chronotypes than men during the first half of their lives.’

If you’re thinking of taking a vacation, you may want to plan early with these spots. This is a list of the most-booked hotels in places around the world. Now, the fact that they are the most-booked probably means that they are quite nice and conveniently located, but it also certainly means that it’s hard to come by a reservation.

Most people have noticed more robust size models on the runways and in magazines than ever before. Now, research shows that these models just might be helping our psyches. Women experience a boost in their mental health after seeing a larger model compared to when they see underweight ones according to Florida State University and their recent research published in the journal Communication Monographs.

As Russell Clayton, the lead author of the study said, “We found overwhelmingly that there is a clear psychological advantage when the media shows more realistic body types than the traditional thin model.”

The researchers recruited 49 women who wanted to lose weight and showed them images of thin, average and larger fashion models on a TV screen. The researchers then looked at their pshycho-physological response (the interplay between the mind and the body). The women, not surprisingly, expressed less body satisfaction when they saw the thin models and they paid less attention to the thinner models. When they viewed the larger models, they felt more satisfied with their own looks.

Jessica Ridgway, an assistant professor who worked on the study said, “Women made fewer social comparisons, felt increased body satisfaction, paid more attention to and remembered average and plus-size models. Therefore, it might be a useful persuasive strategy for media producers to employ plus-size models if the goal of the campaign is to capture attention while also promoting body positivity.”

Father’s Day is only two weeks away, and this is the time to start thinking of ideas. This is true if you’re going to mail something, and if you’re going to create something yourself. Here are some great ways to show dad that you love him without breaking the bank. Get gluing now!

Here is a very strange statistic. 20% of patients who undergo one of the surgical procedures develops a drinking problem according to research from the University of Pittsburgh. The research was published in the journal Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases. Now, this varies depending on which type of weight-loss surgery. Apparently, the gastric bypass patients have twice the risk of alcohol abuse as compared to those who have a band fitted.

The study has found that within five years of a bypass, 20.8% of patients develop symptoms of alcohol abuse as compared to 11.3% who have the band. While this study doesn’t explain the issue, another study suggested that the gastric bypass causes a higher elevation of alcohol in the blood than does the weight-loss band and that this results in alcohol being more addictive than usual. Following more than 2000 patients who participated in a weight-loss surgery study in 2006, they actually found that both the gastric bypass group and the band group had an increase in alcohol consumption during the seven-year period. However, there was only a significant increase in alcohol use disorder symptoms (which are measured by the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) with the bypass.

Dr. Mitchell Roslin, a bariatric surgeon at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City explained the interesting phenomena as such,

“A gastric bypass patient has a small pouch [for a stomach] so alcohol goes straight into the intestine and is absorbed rapidly. When it is absorbed rapidly, there is a high peak and rapid fall, and the higher absorption rate makes alcohol more addictive. Previous studies indicate that, compared with banding, gastric bypass surgery is associated with a higher and quicker elevation of alcohol in the blood.”

Ohio State University is proving what many of us know already – but what we may not be following for various reasons. Children who have both consistent bedtimes and limited screen time have a lower risk for obesity.

As the lead author Sarah Anderson explained,

“Both lack of a regular bedtime and poor emotion regulation increased risk for later obesity.These two factors were independent of each other; the link between bedtimes and obesity could not be explained away by a child’s inability to regulate their emotions.”

Anderson’s team looked at the date for 10,955 young people born in the UK from 2000-2002. They looked at how they were being raised at three and then at their height and weight at 11. By age 11, 6% of the children in the study were obese. Inconsistent bedtimes as young children resulted in an 87% greater chance of being obese by 11.

Not surprisingly, people who had regular bedtimes for their kids tended to also have regular meal times. Interestingly, the children who had mealtimes at the age of three were less likely to be obese than were those who didn’t have regular and consistent meals.